Words from the director

by Dr. Cynthia Chen, Professor

THINK Research

The THINK (Transportation-Human Interaction-and- Network Knowledge) Lab studies the
sustainability and resilience of a city through the lens of human beings interacting with the
physical environment. We generate new knowledge and insights for use in city planning,
infrastructure development and policy design. Our research results facilitate real-time disaster
response and recovery efforts. Our work is highly interdisciplinary, drawing on the latest
methods and ideas in disciplines from social and natural sciences to engineering.

More specifically, THINK lab’s research activities center on unpacking the complexities across
scales, from micro-level individual mobility behaviors, to meso-level social tie networks formed
as the result of space and time-based individual behaviors, and macro-level system behaviors
that propagate through multiple networks. Below are some sample questions that THINK lab
researchers are interested in answering:
1. What underlying mechanisms characterize behaviors across different scales?
2. How can we best leverage interactions within and between infrastructure systems and
social systems to support sustainability and resilience?
3. How do cities evolve over time and reemerge from a disaster?
4. How do individual travel patterns play a role in forming networks, which then facilitate
cascading spreading patterns of socially desirable (e.g., adoption of a new technology
such as electric cars) or undesirable outcomes (e.g., sedentary lifestyles)?

The word “THINK” characterizes THINK Lab research activities:

TH (Transportation-Human): we deal with infrastructure systems (transportation for example)
and humans at the same time, never one or the other. This is because infrastructure systems
provide services to humans, whose behaviors then influence the performance of infrastructure
systems.

I (Interaction): Interaction is considered in our research everywhere! Another, similar word we
often use is “interdependency”. We consider interdependency between different physical
systems (eg, transportation and power) and between physical and social systems (eg,
transportation and humans).

N (Network): we approach from a network perspective, meaning that we consider a set of
entities that are inter-connected with each other, or formally GRAPHS. These entities may be
social entities, including people, families, groups, agencies and organizations etc; or physical
components such as facilities that attract people’s activities whether they are indoor or outdoors,
or locations that transfer flows (intersections or substations or cell towers). Depending on our
specific studies of interest, our networks may be static or dynamic, in equilibrium or chaos.

K (Knowledge): we create conceptual frameworks that describe how certain systems of interest
behave and evolve over time. Examples concern: what is a resilient system in today’s world,
which is characterized by a complex system? How shall we measure resilience? These
conceptual knowledge guides our work. Equally important, we develop advanced models that
test the validity of our conceptual frameworks. These models draw knowledge from a wide
range of disciplines including physics, network science, economics, optimization, and statistics.
We also work closely with other researchers to conduct field work to test and implement our
work in real-world communities.

Research Philosophy

We conduct research for the purposes of knowledge discovery, self-enlightenment and
contribution to the society. It may take years to fully understand it. While paper publications are
important, immediate outcomes on our journey for knowledge discovery, we do NOT conduct
research only for the purpose of publications. We believe that when we conduct research truly
for the purpose of uncovering the unknown, our potentials are boundless. A truly fruitful
research career can be both joyful and painful—joyful, because when new insight is learned,
that moment of joy is indescribable and embarking a research career means that we take on a
lifelong journey dotted with moments of joy; painful, because often times, we can also walk on a
path that takes long hours, and is lonely and full of struggles. It is exactly this combination of
loneness, struggles and moments of joy that defines our research life and makes our work fun.
Having walked a slightly longer journey than most of you, I have a few suggestions for you:

Settle your heart deep, so that you can engage in deep thinking, having your own time,
and are not constantly bothered by what and how many papers you can publish.

Read broadly, which may include non-technical papers and stories and papers that do
not directly fall into your research area. You will find that many phenomena in life are
well-connected and have commonalities. By doing this, you are trying to build yourself
with well-rounded qualities, as opposed to being only good in certain technical aspects
(e.g., data mining...).

Enjoy life. Enjoy your surroundings (people, nature, and everything else), engage in
socially meaningful activities and conversations and contribute to the society.

What you would learn by working with me: aside from learning the technical skills that will
facilitate you to perform some sophisticated research tasks, some of the most important
capabilities you shall learn (which will benefit you for life, even if you decide not to conduct
research or move out of the field of transportation) are below:

ability to think creatively, comprehensively, and rigorously,

ability to identify important questions and problems that matter to the society,

ability to frame a question properly, and

ability to communicate your ideas in a coherent way (both in writing and orally).